Dan Stein

Dan Stein heads the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the flagship of a network of anti-immigrant groups affiliated with its founder, the white nationalist John Tanton. Stein has complained that today’s immigrants are engaged in “competitive breeding” to diminish the power of the white majority and has campaigned to repeal a 1965 immigration law that ended racial quotas that largely restricted immigration to Europeans. He has also served as editorial adviser for The Social Contract, a nativist hate journal published by Tanton.

In His Own Words:"I blame ninety-eight percent of responsibility for this country's immigration crisis on Ted Kennedy and his political allies, who decided some time back in 1958, earlier perhaps, that immigration was a great way to retaliate against Anglo-Saxon dominance and hubris, and the immigration laws from the 1920s were just this symbol of that, and it's a form of revengism, or revenge, that these forces continue to push the immigration policy that they know full well are creating chaos and will continue to create chaos down the line."— “Oral History of the Federation for American Immigration Reform," interview by John Tanton, August 1994

"Immigrants don't come all church-loving, freedom-loving, God-fearing. … Many of them hate America; hate everything that the United States stands for. Talk to some of these Central Americans."— “The Intellectual Roots of Nativism,” interviewed by Tucker Carlson for the Wall Street Journal, Oct. 2, 1997

"Should we be subsidizing people with low IQs to have as many children as possible, and not subsidizing those with high ones?"—“The Intellectual Roots of Nativism,” interviewed by Tucker Carlson for the Wall Street Journal, Oct. 2, 1997

Background:Dan Stein is the executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). A graduate of Indiana University and Catholic University’s law school, Stein assumed that position in 1988 after being with the organization since 1982. He previously was executive director of the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), a non-profit public interest law firm working to control illegal immigration and reduce legal immigration to “levels consistent with the national interest of the United States.” Stein still sits on the board of directors for the IRLI, which acts as the legal arm of FAIR.

Despite FAIR founder John Tanton’s stated desire that white people remain a majority in the United States, Stein has refused to criticize him. Instead, he referred to him in a 2009 Washington Post article as a “Renaissance man,” and he has expressed similar opinions with respect to immigration. In a 1991 document sent to the FAIR board of directors, titled “The Defenders of American Culture Rise to the Call of Arms,” now housed in the George Washington University Gelman Library, Stein praised attacks on “multiculturally and Politically Correct” school curricula, as well as attacks on “the political agenda of those who openly attack the contributions of Western Civilization.”

Stein, speaking on behalf of FAIR, remains dedicated to repealing the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which ended decades of racial quotas that largely restricted immigration to northern Europeans. In “The Defenders of American Culture Rise to the Call of Arms,” he expressed hope that the next step would be an attack on the act. He has consistently and publicly denounced the law as a “mistake” and a “source of error.” In an interview conducted by Tanton in 1994, Stein went on to state that the 1965 act aimed to “retaliate against Anglo-Saxon dominance” and that it engaged in “revengism” against whites that is causing “chaos and will continue to create chaos.”

Remarking on today’s immigrants, Stein has stated that they are participating in “competitive breeding” aimed at diminishing white power and that “[m]any of them hate America, hate everything the United States stands for.”

In addition to his duties for FAIR and IRLI, Stein served as editorial adviser of The Social Contract, a nativist hate journal published by FAIR founder John Tanton. Under his watch, the journal published a particularly virulent special issue titled “Europhobia: The Hostility Toward European-Descended Americans.” Reinforcing FAIR’s paranoia over the impending loss of a white majority in the United States, the lead article put forth the argument that multiculturalism was replacing “successful Euro-American culture” with “dysfunctional Third World countries.” The journal has also featured articles from white nationalist Virginia Abernethy and Social Contract editor Wayne Lutton, who has ties to the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens.

On April 1, 1996, while interviewing the late white nationalist Lawrence Auster on “Borderline,” a FAIR television program, Stein posed the question, “How can we preserve America if it becomes 50% Latin American?” When his guest responded that because of the immigrant “invasion,” “America is in the process of dissolving as a nation” and losing “the historic European Anglo American culture,” Stein offered no argument, instead seeming to be satisfied with the response.

Stein also serves as president of the Coalition for the Future of the American Worker (CFAW), a group that in 2004 ran harsh anti-immigration ads in a Texas congressional race. Both Republicans and Democrats asked that the ads be pulled from circulation for being racially inflammatory.

In a 2000 U.S. Senate election in Michigan, FAIR, under Stein’s leadership, produced ads featuring side-by-side photos of Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.), a Lebanese American, next to Osama bin Laden and the question: “Why is Senator Abraham trying to make it easier for terrorists like Osama bin Laden to export their war of terror to any city street in America?” The smear campaign was in response to Abraham’s call for the issuance of more visas for immigrants with high-tech skills. Abraham was running against Tanton in the state’s GOP Senate primary. After the ads produced controversy, prompting some conservatives like Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) to resign as a member of FAIR, Stein stood by the ads, stating that they were not racist and that he thought Abraham was Jewish.

After a 1997 Wall Street Journal editorial by Garrett Hardin stated that only “intelligent people” should breed, Stein responded to Tucker Carlson, “Yeah, so what? … What is your problem with that?”

Remarking on the minuteman border movement, Stein said, “For many Americans, the Minutemen Project looks more like Lexington and Concord. It represents the escalation of action required to face down the arrogance and contempt of selfish greed. In my view, those who see it differently mistake the matter entirely.” In 2005, Stein invited nativist minuteman Chris Simcox, charged with child molestation in 2013, to FAIR’s “Hold Their Feet to the Fire” week of rallies and lobbying for immigration reform.

At the same lobbying event, Stein repeatedly evoked the 9/11 attacks in arguments against illegal immigration. According to Stein, “9/11 is not gone forever from the public memory. It’s still fresh in the minds of American people. We’re not going to let elites in this country bury the urgent priorities that need to be done.”

Stein publicly boasted in August 2009 that FAIR had testified in front of Congress nearly 100 times – a fact illustrating the effectiveness of the group’s veneer of legitimacy in the realm of immigration reform.